Cat face is a cute way to describe something like a piece of fruit or a tree that’s grown in on itself, giving it a puckered kind of indentation. Particularly in the African-American community, it’s used to denote a wrinkle to be ironed out. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Cat Face”
Grant, you have cats.
Yeah, two. Whopper and Bianca.
Whopper and Bianca, that’s right.
Very sweet.
Well, you know what a cat face is?
Yes, on a piece of fruit or a tree where it’s kind of grown in on itself and has weird kind of indentations.
Yes! How did you know this?
Because there’s an entry for it in my dictionary.
Oh, okay.
And actually all those entries are now on our website.
Okay.
That’s okay.
All right.
So you can have a cat face tree.
So let’s say you cut off a branch and the bark grows over, kind of gnarls inward and meets in the middle and looks kind of like a loaf of bread that’s kind of fluffed up in the oven.
Yes.
Something like that.
That’s a cat face.
Or a tomato that’s not perfectly round.
Perfect.
It’s got a weird kind of indentation.
And it’s not bad.
It’s not rotten.
It just grew oddly.
That’s exactly it.
And there’s one more entry for this in the Dictionary of American Regional English that’s really cool.
What’s that?
Chiefly among black speakers, a wrinkle or pucker left on a garment when ironed improperly.
Oh, nice cat’s face, yeah.
Isn’t that great?
Maya Angelou used that in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Very evocative.
I had to iron seven start shirts and did not leave a cat’s face anywhere.
Nice.
Isn’t that cool?
Very cool.
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